A native of Genoa, Bernardo Strozzi was largely a self-trained artist. His style was formed by absorbing the rich textures of Peter Paul Rubens and the dramatic lighting employed by followers of Caravaggio who passed through Genoa. Strozzi eventually settled in Venice in 1630 or 1631; this painting was probably commissioned there by a member of the Sagredo family to commemorate their saintly forebear Gerardo Sagredo, a Benedictine monk who became Bishop of Csanád, a region straddling present-day Hungary, Romania, and Serbia.